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2004-2275c

Improving Student Evaluations by Demonstrating Concern for Students

Donald P. Visco, Jr.

Tennessee Technological University Department of Chemical Engineering Cookeville, TN 38506

Abstract With regards to tenure, newly-minted professors normally must focus on two main areas: research and teaching. While history has provided useful metrics to evaluate research (refereed journal publications, funded proposals, theses advised, etc), proper assessment of teaching is more elusive. For example, many institutions use some sort of quantitative student evaluation at the end of the semester for a course instructor and these values are normally a required part of a tenure dossier. However, such evaluations can be affected by things unrelated to teaching such as whether the instructor bought pizza for the class prior to administering the assessment or the physical attractiveness of the instructor. In an effort to improve student evaluations (and feedback) in a more meaningful way, the author will present several steps suggested at recent workshops and implemented over the past year by the author to demonstrate concern for students. These steps include: adding a recitation portion of a class to answer class questions and “talk” about student issues, forcing students to pick up their first exam in my office, giving the students a biography of myself and having them complete the same, taking digital photographs of all of the class members in order to learn (and remember) their names very quickly and getting intra-semester feedback. A simple assessment via the comparison of faculty evaluations pre and post-intervention (plus student comments) show improved overall scores in these areas as well as a marked improvement in the student’s opinion of the “excellence” of the instructor at teaching.

“Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education"

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Visco, D. (2004, June), Improve Your Student Evaluations And Feedback By Demonstrating Concern For Your Students Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--13740